On the same November 29, but in 1947, the United Nations agreed to the partition of Palestine. Nearly eight decades after the issuance of this resolution and two years after the beginning of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the pro-Palestinian movement once again took to the streets to denounce “the imposition of a planned colonial decision that led to decades of dispossession, occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.”
Today, which is also the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People since 1977, about 15,000 people according to organizers marched through central Madrid chanting songs such as “Israel kills, Europe’s shepherds” and “Stolen lands will be recovered” behind a banner bearing a single message: “Stop genocide in Palestine. Long live the struggle of the Palestinian people!”
Mobilization began a few minutes after 6:00 p.m. From Atocha, when there was almost no natural light left and Christmas lighting replaced the sun. At the invitation of the Palestinian Latino Association of Jerusalem (AHPJ), the Solidarity Network Against the Occupation of Palestine (Rescop), the Arms Ban on Israel Campaign and rallies with the Palestinian resistance, the demonstrators once again demanded that the government led by Pedro Sánchez completely sever any kind of relationship with Israel.
The leader of the demonstration was approaching Paseo del Prado Street at the same moment when AHPJ spokesman Salah Shalbaya confirmed that “the 1947 resolution was a historic betrayal of the Palestinian people, which was embodied in the expulsion of thousands of people from their homes and the continued killing of many others.” As this activist commented to ElDiario.es, “The international community continues to let Palestine down,” referring to the UN Security Council’s approval of Donald Trump’s so-called “peace plan” for the Gaza Strip.
“We must continue to condemn genocide, even if some media outlets seem to have forgotten about it,” noted Javier, one of thousands of demonstrators. The 42-year-old from Madrid also spoke about the position defended by Pedro Sanchez, which he emphasized was “not up to par” and whose position he described as “media”.
For his part, Shalbaya stressed that “genocide has not stopped in Palestine,” as “attacks and killings continue.” After being fed up with the “impunity” with which he claims Israel always acts, he called on “the international community to act now.” As he said: “We all want peace, but no peace is possible without justice.”
Against the alleged “peace plan”.
The gathered associations want society not to forget what happened in Palestine, neither during 80 years of occupation, nor during two years of genocide. Eban Vasquez, a member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, which is integrated into the RESCOP organization, stressed that “the peace plan they are presenting is not so, because Israel has already violated the supposed ceasefire dozens of times, and above all, because the plan gives a message of the nature and embodies a situation that is contrary to international law.”
The demonstration reached Neptune when this pro-Palestinian activist added: “We also don’t know what the reconstruction will be like, but what we heard is not pleasant at all,” he explained in the so-called Riviera in Gaza promoted by Donald Trump. “What they want is for the Palestinian population to be invited to leave or disappear,” he said.
For this reason, Riskop believes it is important for street mobilization to continue. He stressed, “Here you cannot ignore genocide as if nothing had happened.” Cries of “the criminal Netanyahu to the criminal court” surrounded Vasquez when he added that “this dangerous precedent that says relations between countries can be based simply on force and war cannot be normalized.”
This Rescope member also stated that Gazans remain displaced and besieged by land, sea and air, humanitarian access is denied, and no kind of reconstruction is taking place. “All of this could not have happened without the support of the United States, which is protected by the UN Security Council by other countries,” he stressed. At the same time, some kiosks were set up around them selling keffiyehs and beads in the colors of the Palestinian flag, which they also sold.
Christmas tree remembers Palestine
Esperanza Villalba, a 76-year-old Vallecano resident, also attended the protest as she has done so many other times: “The whole city will have to rally. It is normal now that there will be fewer people, because they may feel tired, but the cause is worth it.” From his point of view, “the problem is that Palestine has almost no weapons and cannot defend itself, because the United States would not allow that in any world power,” he commented, the Ministry of Health lit up in red behind him.
Ignacio Martin attended the demonstration carrying a rather strange Christmas tree. “We did it with a black background, because time is dark, and we depicted all the lost things of Palestine. Not only those that feed the belly, but also the soul,” explained the 49-year-old from Madrid next to a giant dial covered in hundreds of resonant LEDs at the height of the Madrid Stock Exchange. A bus, a tennis racket, beach umbrellas, a communications antenna, bread and water coming out of a tap were among the items that decorated the tree.
In defense of one state
Palestinian Moaz Abu Muwailiq, a member of the councils with the Palestinian resistance, confirmed to Al Diario that the situation in Gaza has greatly worsened with the arrival of cold and winter rains. This activist highlighted the “Israeli army mafias” that subjugate the Palestinian population. This is how he explained it: “They occupy Palestinian lands and then rent them to the Palestinians themselves who have nowhere else to go.”
The protest was already moving along Cibeles towards Gran Via and Abu Muailiq was working to find a possible way out for his compatriots. He lamented, saying: “Many people do not know this, but countries like Ireland and Belgium provided visas for Palestinians to flee colonialism and apartheid, but they stopped doing so with the beginning of the genocide.” Likewise, he criticized the Spanish government’s continued purchase and sale of weapons to Israel, despite constant promises that it would stop doing so, by decree law.
In his case, the conflict is experienced in the first person: “We are not only against Israel, but against the whole world, because the majority of countries support Zionism,” he said, trying to make himself understood over the shouts of the crowd. Moreover, he pointed out that “in Palestine they do not want two states, but rather a state extending from the river to the sea.”
Finally, Abu Muailiq defended armed struggle against the occupation, a right recognized in international humanitarian law. He said, “The resistance factions in Gaza and Palestine are our dignity, and whoever speaks ill of them speaks ill of our dignity.”
Condemn historical treason
Minutes before 8:00 p.m. After slowing down after leaving the Cibeles behind and narrowing the street as it turned into the Gran Via, the crowd of demonstrators gathered on Montera Street. There, two people from the Spanish-Palestinian community read a statement. They began their speech, “Today, November 29, we do not commemorate a resolution: We condemn historical betrayal. The international community failed in 1947 and continues to fail until today, but the people do not forget or surrender.”
Amid applause, the person responsible for reading the statement told the audience that UN Resolution 181 “was the beginning of a planned colonization, expelling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and laying the foundations for the current apartheid system, military occupation and genocide in Palestine.” Moreover, he described the Trump-led plan as “lying”: “It is a political trick supported by complicit governments, including the Spanish government, to demobilize civil society and whitewash the crimes of the Zionist regime.”
Likewise, they criticized a “campaign of media silence” that humanizes Israeli hostages while dehumanizing and silencing “more than 11,000 Palestinian hostages, many of them minors, women and the sick, imprisoned without trial and subjected to torture.” At this point, they highlighted the theft of organs from handed over Palestinian bodies, which was supposedly committed by Israel and witnessed by several investigations.
The statement, which ended with these words, stated: “Palestine knows that freedom is not begged for, but is earned, and that resisting illegal occupation is a legitimate right recognized by international law.” The statement ended with these words: “The Palestinian people are not asking for charity, they are demanding justice. These demands are not a call, they are a moral and political commitment. Enough impunity, enough silence, enough complicity. Palestine lives and resists and will not surrender. Because there is no peace without justice.”